Serbia to Resolve Customs Deadlock With Kosovo: Dacic

Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Serbia and Kosovo agreed to share
control over collecting custom duties and related taxes by
forming a special fund that will be overseen by the European
Union, Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic said.

In a possible breakthrough in the EU-mediated talks between
Serbia and its former province over trade and border control,
they agreed to use the fund for development of municipalities in
northern Kosovo, the home of the 100,000-strong Serb community
in the mostly ethnic Albanian-populated Kosovo, Dacic said after
meeting with his Kosovo counterpart Hashim Thaci in Brussels
today.

Both sides need to hammer out details of the arrangement
that may serve until a political settlement is reached over
Kosovo’s 2008 secession that Serbia refuses to recognize, Dacic
said, according to a statement posted on the government’s
website. Mending ties with Kosovo is a key condition for Serbia
to start entry talks with the 27-nation bloc. The EU may decide
on a date to start accession talks with Serbia “in the
spring,” EU President Herman Van Rompuy said today.

The EU “will review progress in the spring with a view to
a possible decision to open accession negotiations,” Van Rompuy
told reporters today in Brussels after meeting with Serbia’s
Dacic. “Time is of the essence.”

Normalizing relations with Kosovo “now remains the key
requirement for Serbia and the opening of accession
negotiations,” Van Rompuy said. “This includes fully
respecting the principles of inclusive regional cooperation”
and “finding solutions on the more difficult issues in northern
Kosovo.”